My name is Jeremie Minani, and I was born in Rwanda, in a refugee camp called Kigeme; Born into a family broken by war and poverty. I remember as a five year old, building our home from mud...gathering dirt and water to make the walls, using a tarp as a roof and hay as a mattress; At seven witnessing the loss of my best friend to tribalism.

My siblings and I would wake at 5am to walk a 2 hour trip to fetch water for the house before heading to school. And my mother, a woman orphaned at 14, leaving the house in the early mornings and coming home late at night with enough to feed us for the day. …..

The world as is, has been full of pain and suffering; however, though I do not know who you are, or what storms you’ve faced or will face, what I can confidently tell you, is what I’ve also found to be just as true if not truer; that You are carefully created and designed with greatness for greatness, your strength and potential is surely more than you could ever realize.

"Comparison is the thief of joy" - A YouTube video about social media.

I'd like to think that I'm okay with how my life is at the moment, and to a certain extent I am, but when you compare what other teenagers are going through it makes me feel as if I'm a background character in my own story. I know I'm not, but sometimes I wonder if I'm really living life to the fullest. Sure I might not be the most outgoing and sneak out to party, but I have plenty of interesting traits and quirks. I made my school's basketball team, high grades, caring friends, and I'm not really ashamed to be called the 'boring one'.

Our 2018 started with a power outage after returning home from working an annual conference. Here I am at the end of another annual conference, with very tired feet and a full heart. There has been growth, hard work, opportunities, memories, tears, celebrations - a jam packed 2018

I’m needing rest and I will take rest and then I will keep courageously creating.

Things got worse when we found out Johanna’s melanoma staging went up to stage 3 last month when one lymph node removed tested positive for melanoma.

When we found out more about the cutting edge breakthroughs in melanoma treatment called immunotherapy, specifically a drug called Nivolumab. And it’s expensive at a cost of $180,000 for a year of treatment.

To just wait and see and let Johanna get worse to stage 4 to have the treatment funded is simply not an option (nor is another treatment offered that would have little effect and awful side affects) and so we are left with no real choice but to pay for the treatments, however way we can (loans, selling house, fundraising). So we wanted to initially raise $60,000 to cover 4 months worth of treatment, in hopes by then that health Canada will have approved it for stage 3.

I was 15 when I first thought about killing myself. I felt like a burden to those around me -- that I didn't bring anything special to the world. I blamed myself for being bullied during most of my childhood. For never fitting in. For the challenges in my family.

Hello, I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring and do one of those instagrammers #fridayintroductions . *throws imaginary hat* 🎩 I'm Deirdre, and I'm the Story Girl. Everyone calls me Dee! (My name's a bit hard to pronounce)

"where is your father? where does he keep his work documents? If you don't answer we will find him and kill him and we kill all your family."

Then they took off the face covering of the two people they had dragged in and my heart sank. I was shocked to see my Uncle and Aunty who had been missing for 7 months. I cried for help and begged them to stop and then they just, just... killed them.

10 tips for setting a world record for fastest bike ride across Canada

Meet Arvid Loewen (ultra marathon cyclist) and his 9 grand kids (all boys). Arvid Loewen is the Guinness World Record Holder of Fastest Person to cross Canada in 2011. It took 13 days, 6 hours and 13 minutes. Oh! and he did it at age 54.Our family had the pleasure to host Arvid and his wife Ruth in September as part of our Fun Family Traditions where we host someone every month to a ...